NATO and Sweden test improved civil-military crisis cooperation

On 24 and 25 September 2008 in Enköping, Sweden, NATO Allies and Swedish civilian and military forces will demonstrate new ways of effectively sharing critical information in emergency situations.

The ‘live experiment’ will link up Swedish civil emergency ‘first responders’, police and military, with NATO forces to counter a simulated terrorist attack against a mass public event.

It paves the way for improved international civil and military cooperation in the face of natural or man-made disasters, and test new information-sharing concepts and technologies.

Breaking new ground

The special event will be opened by the NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment, Peter Flory, and the head of the Swedish Armed Forces, General Michael Moore, on 24 September. It will be attended by some 400 senior NATO and Swedish officials.

“Efficient and timely sharing of information is a critical element of effective crisis response,” said NATO Assistant Secretary General for Defence Investment, Peter Flory, “Sweden is very advanced in this area. This experiment will test unprecedented levels of cooperation between civil and military forces, and between a Partner country and NATO.”

“The event is an important event both for NATO and for Sweden. NATO and many member states are engaged in developing and fielding Networked Enabled Capabilities, while Sweden has since the year of 2000 been working hard with a similar approach called Networked Based Defence,” said General Moore, “The results of the experiment can contribute to more rapid implementation of new capabilities and services. For Sweden we can capitalise on our work and at the same time secure interoperability with NATO and other nations.”

Sweden is one of NATO’s first Partner Countries (member of the Partnership of Peace since 1994) and contributes forces to NATO’s operations in Kosovo and Afghanistan.